Train Simulator

Microsoft brings the same standards of their flight franchise to the world of the iron horse.

It's widely known around the office that I don't think much of civilian flight sims. While I can get no end of enjoyment out of Combat Flight Simulator, piloting a Cessna from Seatac to SFO just seems to bore me. I felt the same way approaching this game. But after playing around with Microsoft's Train Simulator for a few weeks, I finally get what all the fuss is about with the civilian transportation sim. Some may still think the game is somewhat limited by the nature of its subject, but they're missing the point. Train sim offers a chance to step into the cabs of some classic trains and travel through some amazing locations.

Developed by the same folks that are responsible for the popular and precise Flight Sim franchise, Train Simulator adheres to some pretty exacting standards to model railroading across several different eras. On the steam side of things, players can take command of the Flying Scotsman as it winds through the countryside of England circa 1920 or the G¿lsdorf Series 380 as it pulls the Orient-Express passenger train through the mountains of Austria (also in the 1920s).

The Dash 9 is a combination diesel-electric train pulls freight through the Marias Pass in Montana while the GP38-2 offers less power but greater flexibility. The KIHA 31 is all diesel train that runs passengers across the island of Kyushu. And then there are the electric trains. Despite their differences the two Odakyu trains (the 2000 and 7000 LSE) are both Japanese commuter trains. The Amtrak Acela is the top of the line in terms of automation and carries passengers along the northeastern Atlantic corridor.

With all these trains and all these routes there's plenty of opportunity to find just the right fit for your interests. There are numerous activities to be performed on all of the lines (although for my money nothing beats the free exploration mode). Loading and unloading passengers and cargo and arranging the cars in your consist are load of fun, but the open ended runs are much more relaxing.

From a visual standpoint, the game is every bit as impressive as the last Flight Sim and, even better, runs at a really steady frame rate. There are still a few problems with anti-aliasing and draw-through, but for the most part the graphics are pleasant enough. The sense of scale is captured very well here -- although it would be a hell of lot better if there were any people to be seen anywhere in the game. Still the mountains, forests and urban areas seem big enough to be believable. The weather effects are truly fantastic. I played through a scenario today that takes place in the rain and it had me totally convinced that it would be raining outside when I left for lunch. To me, that's a big deal.

The train models and interiors are also excellent. The cabs themselves are not only accurate (except for the inclusion of a speedometer in the G¿lsdorf) but beautiful as well. It's too bad there's no 3D cockpit or some sort of pan feature like there is the passenger views. You can look out the side windows of the locomotive but there's no transition. Still, it's not bad. The various views and camera controls are all convenient and comfortable. Little animations on the train itself also add to the experience.

Things get even better in the sound department. All of the sounds are incredibly authentic and brought back memories of my grandmother (who spent years working for the railroad) taking me to watch trains. There are a few balancing and mixing problems with the sound. The fact that the voiceovers in the tutorial are completely drowned out by the engine noise springs to mind. Otherwise the sound palette for the game is remarkably rich and deep.

Since I brought it up, I should mention that the tutorial is pretty awful. While it tries to explain the how and why of things, it just ends up being kind of tedious. Worse still, it progresses at a really slow pace and covers a lot of the same ground. There are three tutorials (one for each engine type) and each one spends a couple of minutes going over camera controls. Watching it for the third time is irritating. Luckily the manual is solid and does a good job of condensing a lot of hinkfo into a manageable space. It even goes into some of the basics behind the physics at work in railroading.

Still, the game is missing a few things that might have made the experience even more enjoyable. For one thing there's no real catastrophic failure animations. You can't blow up your steam engine and the derailment animations are pretty tame. This is a constant problem with the Flight Sim series as well. We've tried to tell them time and again that gamers expect to see some kind of flaming wreckage as a consequence of raging irresponsibility but they won't listen. I suppose it has something to do with the licensees and their desire to create an illusion that terrible accidents can't happen but it's still disappointing not to see a real attempt at modeling crashes.

I'm also slightly disappointed that there's no dispatch model in the game. It's not what the game set out to be of course, but a strategic layer overlaying the sim side of the game would've added a lot. You could even include a small trading and transit angle to the game. But again, that's not what this game was supposed to be anyway so you can't blame the developers too much. There's a pretty robust editor, but the support for it isn't all that great.

In any case, the game is pretty cool but a little low on the excitement side, at least for my tastes. For anyone with even a slight interest in trains, Train Simulator will provide a great way to get inside the world of railroading, at least from an engineer's perspective. People who are nuts about trains -- you know who you are -- will find Train Sim to be the most in-depth and enjoyable train simulator on the market. Nevermind that it's the only one out there -- it's still the best.